Women’s rights official Nadia Sediqqi was gunned down on her way to work in eastern Afghanistan on Monday by unknown assailants, in an attack that highlights the special dangers Afghan female government workers face. The Washington Post reported that Sediqqi was shot as she was getting into a rickshaw near her home in Eastern Laghman province, […]

An Afghan protester speaks on a loudspeaker as others hold portraits of Afghans who were killed in the past three decades of war and violence, during a demonstration for human rights in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Dec. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Women’s rights official Nadia Sediqqi was gunned down on her way to work in eastern Afghanistan on Monday by unknown assailants, in an attack that highlights the special dangers Afghan female government workers face.

The Washington Post reported that Sediqqi was shot as she was getting into a rickshaw near her home in Eastern Laghman province, where she was head of women’s affairs.

Reuters reported that many female Afghan government officials are forced to work without the protection of bodyguards, rendering them especially vulnerable to attacks by religious extremists and others who oppose women’s presence in the workforce.

“This is not the first such incident — a number of Afghan women in public roles have been assassinated over the past 10 years,” commented Amnesty International, in a report on the murder of Hanifa Safi. “The targeting and killing of civilians is an appalling act.”

The BBC reported that Nimroz police chief Gen. Mohammad Musa Rasuli was also killed by a roadside bomb Monday on his way home from Herat. It remains unknown who placed the bomb.

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